Basketball
by three times over
Summary: Dudes shoot some hoops in an empty court. Some characters don't appear in the footer even though I added them but it's okay, they don't really have enough stage time to warrant the inclusion.


According to my original and copious brainstorming session for this, I felt like writing something with karkat and sollux in it - nothing particularly meaningful, just a chillax fic, really. In fact you get the privilege of seeing those notes now:

_- karkat+sollux (not karkatxsollux :l)_  
_- outside.. things? do they have basketball?_  
_- LOL, it should be like, they're inexplicably on earth playing basketball. Maybe dave and john should be there._

I like that random "LOL" there. It's really awkward to look at now. It wasn't even that funny.

I know I originally meant for the characters to demonstrate some, let's say, physical _apitude_? The basketball was going to be like, background filler, to rambly discussions and stuff. Works out better this way though.  
Also, no swearing! Coz I'm a good girl. I have another fic where I decided to enable swearing and _that_ was certainly hilarious, not to mention atrocious. This is easier on the eyes and exercises my writing skills more, in that I have to rack my brain for suitable substitutes. (There _are_ a number of weak boo-boos present, but none that are of the typical Karkat variety.)  
Mmm what else... I tried to fit in more descriptions because my work is always very minimalist. S'alright. Feels like it's shoehorned in. ~_~ Overall this piece is kinda double-edged for me, I could keep complaining but somehow I still manage to not completely loathe it.  
Warning in advance for extreme Sollux mischaracterisation. I barely know what his character _is_.

Written Sep-Oct 2010; was nearly ye olde 16 years of age.

/-/-

* * *

Hit, and miss. A tough orange sphere, criss-crossed with dark lines, rebounded off the hoop's backboard and across the court.

Karkat growled under his breath, running after the basketball. Its distinctive boinking sound slowed as he reached it, and muttering further upon seeing the reducing arcs, he bent over to grab the stupid thing.

"Hey, I think you're getting better at this!" John shouted from the other end of the court. Normally he looked the spitting image of a nerd, with his thick-rimmed glasses and long-sleeved shirts: now, donned in a t-shirt and loose jeans, he just looked like a dude with glasses. Karkat wondered why he didn't spare the effort of tucking in a shirt, and just wear that all the time.

Nevertheless, the inhumanely grey figure snarled as he rose, twisting round to face the others. "God, shut up, Egbert. I don't need your lousy goddamn 'positive reinforcement', I can figure out how to do this on my own."

"Honestly, Karkat, quit the self-assuring act because the only one being convinced is you." The basketball twitched with red and blue sparks, and zipped over to Sollux, whose asymmetrical red and blue sunglasses rendered voice his main emotive tool. With one hand enveloped by similar colours, he caught the object like a magnet caught iron. "I'd say 'as usual', but that's basically a given, isn't it? You know what, let me wholeheartedly apologise for criticising what comes naturally to you. I can't imagine how you'd be without your best friends Antisocialism and Douchebaggery."

"Sollux I'd like you to stop the goddamn ball _before_ I chase after it next time," Karkat growled, in a not-quite-related rebuttal. The other troll deactivated his powers as Karkat returned to them, and they all watched as he shot for the hoop. A complete miss, rattling the wire mesh behind. "Ha. Yet another historic moment from the great Sollux Captor. Is there nothing he can do, besides flounder without supernatural assistance."

"Please don't tell me this is that hate-love thing trolls do," John sighed, picking up the ball from where it'd rolled to him.

"NO," they both snapped.

"Pff, okay, sorry." It was John's turn to throw the basketball, and he hit the backboard, where it bounced onto the hoop's rim. He visibly grimaced; it'd looked like it would fall in, but then seemed to spin right around and drop off the side. While he had the most consistent track record of the lot, it certainly wasn't much to flaunt either.

"Mine," Karkat absently declared, taking up the ball as it bounced past him. "How long have we been doing this now, half an hour? I swear my arms and my mental stability would drop dead if this was how I wasted my time. Your human leisure activities are literally the most primitive and repetitive I've ever been privy to."

"Like I've been _saying_," John irritatedly pointed out, "if you don't want to keep going just pass the ball over."

"Hell no, it's my turn."

There would presumably be more to say; in fact, it was virtually guaranteed Sollux would have more to say to that, if a rolling sound behind them had not caught everyone's attention. Outside of their metal cage, a certain sunglassed person in red was now visible, skateboarding his way towards them.

"Dave!" John shouted estatically, running to open the mesh door as the fellow teen slowed to a stop. "Way to be late, bro! We've been waiting for you!"

"Nah, I had to sort out some crap before I got here," he dismissively replied, flicking his skateboard upwards. "Egbert why the hell do you bother to tuck in your shirt all the time if you can just wear this."

"Hey, my shirts are way cool!" the boy pouted in response. "And you totally did not have any crap to sort out! Newsflash, being 'fashionably late' was _out of fashion_ about _two decades ago_."

"It's not about being late, it's about _upholding an image_." And with that Dave effectively dispelled his own excuse. "So," he started, noticing the other humanoid species present, "how much have you taught these losers while I wasn't here."

"A whole lot more than you could ever hope to achieve," Karkat snorted before John could answer.

"Do you seriously think you're any good at something you just learnt existed four hours ago. Speaking of which, how the hell does your stupid planet not have basketball. Pass it here," Dave called out to Sollux, who happened to be telekinetically fooling around with it at that moment. The alien swung it to him, and Dave dribbled it towards the hoop, then shot.

It passed right under, just grazing the net and bounding off the pole with a cacophony of sounds.

Truth be told, they were all pretty terrible at basketball.

/-/-

* * *

Hey, here's an outtake for you all:

_"You know what, let me wholeheartedly apologise for criticising what comes naturally to you. I can't imagine how you'd be without your left nut Antisocialism and right nut Douchebaggery."_

With the whole.. xenobiology.. headcanons going round now, it's a good thing I decided to switch it out.

I quite like that John's dialogue becomes subtly more _radical_ when Dave's around. Obviously not a canon thing, but eh.

Guess who feels successful having essentially predicted Dave would not be able to do Sports. _Oh yeah._


End file.
